Deep Creek Loop - Deep Creek Loop Trail in the Smoky Mountains

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Deep Creek Loop
Trail Features:		Waterfalls / Wildflowers
Trail Location:		Deep Creek
Roundtrip Miles:		4.6 miles
Total Elevation Gain:		579 feet
Avg. Elev Gain / Mile:		252 feet
Highest Elevation:		2437 feet
Trail Difficulty Rating:		5.76 (moderate)
Parking Lot Latitude:		35.4643
Parking Lot Longitude:		-83.4342

The Deep Creek Loop trailhead is located just north of Bryson City in North Carolina. To get there from Cherokee, head south on Rt. 19. You'll drive exactly 10 miles from the intersection of 441 and 19 in Cherokee to Everett Street in Bryson City. Turn right onto Everett and drive for 0.2 miles. Turn right onto Depot Street. After a short distance, take a left onto Ramseur Street and then an immediate right onto Deep Creek Road. Drive 2.3 miles to the park entrance and then another 0.5 mile to the parking lot for the Deep Creek Loop trail.

Trail Description:

The Deep Creek Trail was one of the first trails constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the newly legislated park in the early 1930s. The Deep Creek Campground was the site of the Deep Creek CCC Camp from 1933 to 1936.

Bryson City author Horace Kephart, author of Our Southern Highlanders, lived for a short while with the Bob Barnett family in one of the last houses up Deep Creek in 1910. Until his death in an automobile accident in 1931, he used the old Bryson Place near where the Left Fork enters the main portion of Deep Creek as his summertime camping spot. A permanent marker there commemorates the site.

At 0.8 miles, the loop portion of this trail begins. Turn right onto Indian Creek Trail. After walking just 0.1 mile, there is a short spur trail on your left that takes you down to Indian Creek Falls (see photo at the top). This is an awesome 25-foot falls. As you climb back to the main trail, and pass above the falls, you’ll notice that Indian Creek Falls is more of a water slide than a true waterfall.

As you continue on the loop portion of the trail, you'll soon cross over a footbridge. You’ll notice that the Indian Creek valley, now on your right, is choked with rhododendron through this section.

At 1.4 miles, the Thomas Divide trail splits off to the right. Continue going straight here.

At 1.7 miles, the loop trail splits off of Indian Creek Trail. Turn left here. For the next half-mile you'll climb roughly 350 feet in order to reach the Sunkota Ridge Trail junction. After turning onto this section of the loop, you quickly leave the noise from creek behind you, and, with the possible exception of the sound of your own heavy breathing, enter a noticeably much quieter valley.

At the Sunkata Ridge junction, continue going straight. It’s all downhill from here until you reach Deep Creek. Upon reaching the Deep Creek Trail again, roughly 2.9 miles from the trailhead, turn left, cross the bridge, and follow the trail back to the parking lot. From this point onward, the trail is relatively flat.

On your way back to the parking lot, at roughly 3.7 miles, you’ll reach a spur trail which takes you to Juney Whank Falls. The spur trail travels about 1.2 miles to the falls, and then another 0.25 miles back to the parking lot.

If you bypass the Juney Whank Falls spur, you'll exit the loop portion of the trail in just another 0.1 mile. Continue straight for another 0.8 miles to reach the parking lot.

The Deep Creek Trail begins as a wide path as it traces Deep Creek up stream. Rewards are almost immediate on this trail. Just 0.3 miles from the trailhead, the 80-foot Toms Branch Falls (see photo on the left) spills down into the creek from the opposite bank.

Wildflowers are also abundant in the Deep Creek area. You'll find a variety of trilliums blooming at different times, as well as foamflower, galax, crested dwarf iris, beard tongue, Solomon's seal, cinquefoil, bloodroot, bluets and blue-eyed grass. Jack-in-the-pulpit is also abundant, but is sometimes hard to locate among the wild geranium, clinton's lily and the large houstonia.

As the trail rises in elevation along the Sunkota Ridge and Indian Creek Trails, you’ll begin to notice rhododendron, mountain laurel and flame azalea.